Henry Rifle Forums

We are moving to the midwest, looking at small farms in the 30 to 60 acre range. We will be hobby farmers, I guess. I will be woodworking, reloading and shooting, and reading. Miss T will have a large garden, run a half dozen cows, dozen goats, dozen chickens, couple horses. 20 or 30 acres of hay. I have a couple 223 ARs, but they are carbines, more appropriate for close in work.
I would look for a scoped bolt gun for coyotes and problematic feral pigs.

My inclination is to go with .223 in the bolt gun to limit the calibers I deal with, but if that won't do the job on the pork? .308? .270? What say you with more experience? I haven't hunted in years. Other than things that shot back.

One of my neighbors is into hog hunting in a big way. He prefers .308 for the job and I believe he normally uses a scoped M1A when he goes to his land in OK to thin them out. .223 is a little light for hog, imho, although proper placement in a small hog (130lbs or so) would likely get the job done. Trouble is that big tuskers are gonna need bigger bullets.

You might consider trapping, since that's really more effective for control purposes. What's the rules where you will be?

Marine
You will get alot of different answers here and Im sure all will be good. 223 will do it with good shot placement on the pigs. I get the not wanting more calibers I have to many now. But if it was me Id go for 243 or 308 for the extra range on the coyotes and more knock down power on those hogs. Those hogs are tough.

Marine, I think what Al said is pretty spot on. If you handload, the .308 will take care of coyotes and feral hogs. Lighter bullet for coyotes, heavier for hogs. In factory, 150-165gr for heavy, not sure what is offered in lighter factory rounds. I'll look around for you. I have plenty of time.

.243 very versatile caliber

Depending on the terrain, a small farm might make me worry about sending an errant bullet into the neighbors property. What distances would you be shooting? If flat, consider a more short range cartridge. You also need to research the state laws for allowed calibers in case you want to hunt off your private property. I personally would wait until I saw the actual terrain before I decided on a gun or caliber.

What states are you considering? Midwest is pretty vague and represents a dozen states...

FYI a 30 acre square shape is less than 1200 feet on each side..... and a 60 acre square is about 1600 feet per side.

I don’t hunt either, so this is all theoretical....

John Davies
Spokane
WA

Hmm, Mr. Davies brings up some good points. In the meantime Marine, there are plenty of factory ammo options just from Midwayusa.com. Fed, Hornady, Nosler etc all make 150 and heavier and most have 110gr, 125 gr options. If you handload, you nave it made. I don't mind some handload questions for the .308. Be safe.

Several years back in fall turkey season I was hunting turkey/small game with my Sako 223 that I owned at that time. I was loaded with hand loads using 10 grs. of Unique and a 53 gr. bullet that chronographed at just under 2400 fps. This load would be more than a Hornet and maybe less than a 218 Bee. There was a fair amount of feral hogs in the area at that time. A pretty large group of hogs came by while I was waiting on a turkey and I shot two hogs with 1 shot each and they kicked their hind legs a little but never got back up after the shot. They were both in the 100- 120 lb size. I now use a Sako 222 with the same load of Unique in the fall and would not hesitate to shoot a hog with the right shot being available. Shot placement is key to all game shooting. The guy who owned the ground shot several with a 243 100 gr. factory load and never kept one down. He found the ones he shot when he saw the buzzards circling two days later. Shooting at the center of the hog or in the south end of a north bound hog more than likely won't get you one. By the way both were very fine eating.

We are looking at OK and just over the line in KS. .As a former Marine and LE Firearms Instructor, I would always be sure of my backstop. The rifles I was thinking of would likely be the M1A in 308 or a nice Remington 700. I do reload, but I don't know if buying the conversion for my dillon would generate enough savings over buying factory ammo in bulk to recoup the cost of the setup for the press.

I am currently set up for 9mm, 38, 40, 45. But, I have extra dies and tool heads set up for i can swap out instantly for 9, 38 wadcutter, 38 semiwadcutter, 40, 45 semiwadcutter, and 45 ball. Back when I was shooting competition, I was shooting about 10,000 rounds a year, so rather than swap dies and powder drops in toolheads, and recalibrate, I had toolheads set for match loads for the various guns/classes.

I have read that Savage makes a very accurate bolt gun as well. Input?
Thanks.

If you're thinking Savage, and .223, I have read many positives on the model 25 Walking/Lightweight Varminter. I'm considering a .223 myself, and that one is in the running, along with a CZ 527. I'm leaning towards the CZ, with its set trigger and Walnut stock...